1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a liquid ejecting head which is provided with a piezoelectric layer made of a piezoelectric material and a piezoelectric element having an electrode to discharge a liquid droplet from a nozzle opening, a method of manufacturing a liquid ejecting apparatus and a method of manufacturing a piezoelectric element.
2. Related Art
As a representative example of a liquid ejecting head, for example, there is an ink jet type recording head in which a part of a pressure generating chamber which communicates with a nozzle to discharge a liquid droplet is formed of a vibration plate and the vibration plate is deformed by a piezoelectric element to pressurize ink in the pressure generating chamber, such that the ink droplet is discharged from the nozzle. As a piezoelectric element used in an ink jet type recording head, there is a piezoelectric element in which a piezoelectric layer (piezoelectric film) made of a piezoelectric material having an electromechanical transduction function, for example, a crystallized dielectric material interposed between two electrodes.
Since high piezoelectric properties are demanded for the piezoelectric material used as the piezoelectric layer forming the piezoelectric element, a representative example of the piezoelectric material may be lead zirconate titanate (PZT) as a representative example (refer to JP-A-2001-223404). However, there has been demand for a piezoelectric material without lead or which has a reduced lead content from the viewpoint of environmental problems. As a piezoelectric material not containing lead, for example, there is a BiFeO3-based piezoelectric material which contains Bi and Fe (for example, refer to JP-A-2007-287745).
However, a piezoelectric layer made of a complex oxide without lead or which has a reduced lead content has a problem of low crystallinity. When the piezoelectric layer has low crystallinity, for example, a problem such as a small amount of displacement occurs. Furthermore, the problem of low crystallinity is not limited to the BiFeO3-based piezoelectric material, a bismuth-based piezoelectric material which contains bismuth also has the same problem. Moreover, such a problem exists not only in an ink jet type recording head, but also in other liquid ejecting heads which discharge liquid droplets other than ink. In addition, such a problem also exists in a piezoelectric element used for apparatuses other than a liquid ejecting head.